My Green Map

Mapmakers Only

Global News Blog

You may have noticed a launch party announcement, set for December 10, 2018

During the next few days, this 2007-2018 website known as the 'Greenhouse' will be replaced at GreenMap.org so you may notice a moment of disruption or two.

We are so grateful to all the people who have contributed to this website over the years! It will still be online, and accessible at http://GreenMap.org/greenhouse/home, as long as Drupal 4.7 is supported. It was built out over a two year period, led by Thomas Turnbull, with Carlos Martinez, Beth Ferguson, Wendy Brawer, Gottfried Haider, Yelena Zolotorevskaya, Maddy Goldfarb, Miikka Lammela and Yoko Ishibashi, plus Openflows and most recently Ciprian Samoila, who is also taking the lead on the new website.
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Green Map System is now an open source organization, paving the way for new collaborations and innovations that directly address climate urgency while building local capacity for change. Already, there are exciting developments benefiting from our 22 years of experience, network and impacts worldwide.

Join the party! Be among the first to see our new website that supports this new approach and celebrate as we look forward together. Please put the date on your calendar now, and watch for details in November. All are welcome! read more »

It wasn't very long ago that the River Raisin Institute registered and voila! Thanks to the project team of Kelly Salchow-MacArthur, designer; Danielle Conroyd, Sharon Venier, Brittany Santure, the new Green Map is making quite a splash - here's a post from the team at RRI, and you can download and enjoy the map below. We love how it's packaged up, ready for collecting your own observations and favorite sites!

• The Bistrita Green Map was launched by the Asociația Harta Verde România at the same time. Since co-author Wendy Brawer was taking part in this Green Map workshop along with program coordinator Ciprian Samoila, the new Mapping our Common Ground was also introduced to this local audience at the beautiful Biblioteca Judeteana Bistrita-Nasaud.

Updated and expanded, this free 64-page eBooklet is a comprehensive guide based on the participatory community and Green Mapping experiences of the Common Ground Community Mapping network, the University of Victoria Community Mapping Collaboratory in Canada, and the worldwide Green Map network. Our thanks to dozens of Green Map projects and global partners that contributed to this third edition.

Download the presentation below!

Co-produced and written by Wendy Brawer, Ken Josephson and Maeve Lydon. Originally published in 2006 with a Spanish version produced in 2007, this 2018 updated edition reflects the progress made in community mapping and technologies, featuring campus curriculum and research, digital technologies, participatory planning and co-development, and more.

When the first Green Map of NYC was made back in 1992, people were surprised to see the abundance of nature in the city. We realized the importance of promoting our wealth of parks, beaches and other natural places as a way to promote ‘staycations’, support engagement, protect the wilderness, reduce sprawl and improve quality of life, across the board.

That’s why we are especially excited to share the first Green Map made by the Manhattan Ranger Conservation Corps! Created with a cool after-school program run by the Urban Park Rangers of NYC Parks, you can check out their map at OpenGreenMap.org/greenmap/conservationcorps. It provides an enticing look at the lovely places that host classes, walks and workshops. Join the Urban Park Rangers on an upcoming program – there’s a calendar full of terrific events on the NYC Parks website - it’s quite remarkable!

We have been developing a unique, community-based approach to the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Popularly known as the SDGs, and recognized with the rainbow ring that signifies the 17 priorities, you can review our project here: bit.ly/SDGGM.

As our network expands the uses of the SDGs, we are adding them to a Slideshow. With both actual and aspirational projects, we hope these applications will inspire you.

Download the poster that compares Green Map Icons to the SDGs in English and French. Soon, this chart will be available in Chinese! Want to pitch in on another language or develop an experience or application with us? We look forward to hearing from you!

2017 began in an exciting way - our founding director and Green Map were selected for a TED Residency. Now after a wonderful stint working at TED being connected with new ideas, new media and great people, we are delighted to present Wendy’s TED Talk.

This talk shares the future of Green Map, which has gone ‘open source’ to encourage fresh new kinds of mapping and projects that advance our mission of inclusive participation in sustainable, resilient community development. We’re excited to see what this new approach (with a Creative Commons 4.0 license that invites users to freely use the Green Map Icons on non-commercial projects of any kind, adapt and share them provided that you give credit to Green Map System (yes, we are happy to discuss commercial uses, too!). More on this in our soon to launch new website!
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(ver español debajo) In November 2017, Mapa Verde Irapuato and Green Map System joined the PECSII conference on "Ecosystem Change and Society" in Oaxaca Mexico. For us, it was a great opportunity to think more widely about the benefits Green Mapmakers provide to nature as well as community.

In the session on tools and strategies for sustainable cities, Wendy Brawer, our director opened with a 10 minute presentation on the global program, highlighting themes around participatory regeneration, climate change and Latin America, especially Cuba and Brazil. Her talk included the latest local initiative from New York, which is testing the waters of ‘going open’ with placemaking activities.
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Climate on our Mind

think global, map local!

With extreme flooding, record-breaking hurricanes, and too many places under threat, climate action remains our gravest challenge. How can we, together, best face this existential crisis?
Let's do more for our home planet. Join us at three events listed below.
At Green Map, we have worked to reduce climate impacts at the community level since Day One, providing a direct means to communicate local options for sustainable living and towards a healthier, more just and lovable city. As we give people the tools needed to conduct local eco-assessments, we equip them to make real change, shifting perspectives about community assets and liabilities and contributing to positive, cross-cutting actions with across the board benefits.
Climate-themed Green Maps have been made in Thailand, South Korea, Spain and other places, as presented at the Crisismappers conference.

In addition, we have placed climate action on many NYC Green Maps and encouraged more engagement through events, media and consulting. Indeed, every Green Map we've made has included energy efficiency and renewables!read more »

After thinking about which public spaces in my local community have had the biggest impact on me, I considered one which has helped me further my education and bolstered my enjoyment of reading: my public library! The Northern New Jersey Public Libraries Map highlights this invaluable resource which encourages literacy, education, research, and social interaction, all for free.

With this community resource in mind, I started to think about how to map them. After doing some research, I discovered that my local library was part of a larger system called the Bergen County Community Library System (BCCLS), and found the organization’s website extremely helpful. After finding the names and addresses of all the local public libraries, I knew I needed to find their coordinates to map them, so I used the geocoding platform, My Geo Position. With all of this information on a spreadsheet, I was ready to publish the northern New Jersey libraries on the Open Green Map platform, and after a few days of data entry had an interactive Green Map with 80 sites!read more »

Hi! My name is Jake Greenberg, I am a rising Senior at Brandeis University (a college in Waltham, Massachusetts) who has been volunteering at Green Map System during the Summer of 2017. Work is always exciting at Green Map System and I have had more opportunities here than I could have ever expected. With that, I am excited to share some highlights from my experience so far!

I began by assisting Green Map System in incorporating new technologies for community mapping and working toward the launch of its new website, planned for fall 2017. With a background in GIS from college, I have specifically been helping Green Mapmakers utilize advanced platforms like Story Maps on ArcGIS online, making an example map, the Northern Valley of New Jersey Story Map, to demonstrate how the platform works (and to help finalize the tutorial kindly donated by Esri Canada). My map has pictures, videos, and descriptions, each of which makes the Story Map come to life. read more »

Low tech works well for outreach. It's fun, immediate, and stimulates interesting conversations. Baltimore Green Map used icon stickers, 4 x 6 cards and a city map to collect new sites to be Green Mapped at Baltimore Office of Sustainability's annual Town Hall on April 18. We learned about several community gardens and orchards that are new to our map and recorded why there is pride in these community accomplishments. This methodology also became the vehicle to learn of several locations where residents see opportunities for major improvements. That points the way to new hyper-local mapping to give voice to their ideas. read more »

Presentation of the Green Map Project on April 28, 2016, for a class of the elderly participants of the Open University of Maturity (approximately 70 people) and realization of a dynamic with the class using the Green Map icons and their meaning,

National coverage:

Enrollment of a poster about the Green Map Project in the Regional Meeting of the Brazilian Society for Science Progress (Palhoça/Santa Catarina), and the presentation of the poster on October 06, 2016. Access the abstract.

The United Nations’ work on sustainable development has been an inspiration to us since Day 1. Now, the UN has a new way of clearly setting out goals. We applaud this breakthrough on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the SDGs!

With 14 weeks of support to further the development of Green Map as an 'idea that matters" the residency culminates in the making of a TED Talk (see some of the most popular and search all of them here).

As you can guess, Wendy is delighted that she and Green Map are included. Based at TED's NYC offices, the Residency program curates a co-hort of 20 accomplished people, all briefly introduced in TED's blog.read more »

Liberty Conservation and Development Association was started in the year 2000 as a community-based
organization located in Africa at Tororo Uganda. The aim of the organization is to protect and conserve the
environment and to promote sustainable development. Liberty CDA consists of men, women and youth committed to
working together to transforming planet earth, starting at home. Here, we introduce 4 projects and invite you to
help us achieve our new goal, which will benefit all of the residents and environment of Uganda.

Green Map Project

The first project implemented was the making of the Tororo Green Map. This was first Green Map created on the
African continent, according to global nonprofit Green Map System.

This Green Map helped everyone identify, promote and link areas of environment importance in Tororo with the help of collectively shared Green Map icons. The map has acted as an eye opener as far as environmental issues are concerned. In addition, the map was used by policy makers to help make Tororo a better place, and led to the projects described here. Liberty CDA has been using this map to help promote more friendly green sites, and as a way to build capacity.
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